SOI Alumnus (Arctic ’08) Julie Alivaktuk has made a brilliant silent film called Speaking out on climate change.
For more information about Julie’s project, visit http://www.isuma.tv/hi/en/inuit-knowledge-and-climate-change/silent-film-climate-change.
Silent film on climate change
by Ian Mauro
Isuma (October 20, 2009) — In the tradition of Buster Keaton-style black and white slapstick comedy, this piece by Pangnirtung’s Julie Alivaktuk brilliantly pokes fun at the very serious issue of climate change and how it affects Arctic ecosystems and Inuit people.
This film was developed with Julie over a ten-day period while Qajaaq Ellsworth, Stacey Aglok MacDonald and myself were in Pangnirtung to carryout youth-focused climate change video work. Through their Inuusivut project (www.inuusivut.com), which promotes video production as a technique for suicide prevention and community building, Qajaaq and Stacey had trained and helped Julie to make other films. When we arrived in town this time, Julie was very focused and knew exactly how she wanted to approach a climate change film, and this is the end product.
…I think that the approach of making a silent film called “Speaking out on climate change” is a savy political commentary about the reality that indigenous people – particularly indigenous youth – have a muted voice in the cacaphony of business, government and environmental perspectives loudly heard in the news. Hopefully Julie’s film sheds some – black and white – light on the need to hear young Inuit perspectives on climate change.
Filmmaker: Julie Alivaktuk
Producer’s Name: Igloolik Isuma Productions and Innusivut
Year of Production: 2009
Country: Canada
Region: Baffin Island